Beacon of Light in the Dark Sea

Chapter 12

I woke up from the shock of falling out of bed. A strange creaking sound echoed in the distance. What’s that noise? I got up, staggering as the room seemed to shake. The pen on the desk trembled from the vibration.

Still disoriented, I opened the door, and water gushed into the room with a whooshing sound. Why was the hallway filled with water? As soon as the thought crossed my mind, goosebumps crawled up my body.

The seawater soaking my bare feet was cold. I finally smelled the saltiness and quickly retreated back into my room. I worried that the door might not close, but it slowly shut.

I sat on the bed, wiped my wet feet on the blanket, put on long socks, and slipped into the sturdiest hiking boots I owned. In the waterproof backpack that my sibling had given me as a job-warming gift, I found a flashlight I had bought for a camping trip but never used.

I crammed a bottle of water, a guidebook, scattered candies, chocolates, energy bars, and the like into the backpack. I also shoved in the towel I used for washing my face and the whale plush toy that was next to it. As I stuffed everything in sight into the bag, I remembered that all my clothes were in the dryer in the laundry room. I put my wallet and the pad from the bed into the bag and closed it. It took even more courage to open the door with my phone in hand.

Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I pressed the door button, and it opened more slowly than usual, perhaps due to a malfunction. Before, the water had barely reached my soles, but now it quickly rose to my ankles. Fear washed over me. Why is water leaking inside? While underwater bases might be prone to leaks, they weren’t built for humans to live like fish.

Is this normal? I thought, placing my hand on the hallway wall. Was it a common occurrence for the living quarters to be flooded like this, and was I just unaware? Caught in an unexpected situation, my mind went blank. The damp hem of my clothes and the cold water were the only things that made me feel the reality of the flooded underwater base.

The bedroom doors in the living quarters opened with a fingerprint, or by swiping the electronic watch on my wrist, or holding up the pad. I was in the West District, where 80 people shared living quarters. To escape, I had to go through the central staircase next to room 40 and head for the escape pod. What if people were still asleep in their rooms? What if they hadn’t woken up yet? Or what if this was normal, and I was overreacting?

I recalled a sentence from the underwater base guidebook about how to escape:

[If a water leak is discovered in the underwater base, it is not a normal situation.]

Gritting my teeth as I looked at the seawater swirling around my ankles, I thought, ‘if there are 80 rooms, I have to start now. If it turns out this is normal, I’ll just look a little crazy.’

“Wake up! We need to run away now! There’s a water leak!”

I knocked on the door of the room next to mine, but no one came out. My room was number 38, and the neighboring room, number 37, was occupied by a Chinese chef named Wang Wei. I couldn’t tell if he was inside. I knocked on the door and even pressed my finger on the pad, knowing it wouldn’t open with my fingerprint.

In the movie, the door was opened by a fingerprint on the pad or something like that, but to my surprise, the door opened quickly. I couldn’t figure out why the door opened. As soon as I saw the empty room, I headed straight for the adjacent room. I knocked on the door and scanned my fingerprint. The door opened immediately, but no one was inside. I shouted and rushed to open the bedroom door next to it.

“Wake up! We need to escape! The seawater is rising!”

Around the time I opened about ten doors, I finally found someone sleeping. The person was about 180 cm tall, wearing a headset and tightly wrapped in a quilt, and was sleeping while his torso was undressed. I jumped in and immediately removed the headset from his ears.

“Wake up!”

I waved my hand as if swatting a fly. I pushed him off the bed with force, and he fell to the floor. He cursed in an unintelligible foreign language. Maybe it was my fault, but I didn’t have time, so I kicked the man lying on the floor with my foot.

“Get up!”

The man groaned and got up, then cursed at me, but his face changed when he saw water coming into the room in real-time.

“Get out now, you basta*rd!”

I don’t think he understood the Korean word “bast*rd,” but since he cursed at me, I returned the insult. As soon as I left the room, I read the plaque on the door and went to the next room. When I opened two more doors, Carlos popped out. He came out wearing a shirt and shoes, but the water had already risen to his ankles.

“What’s going on? Why is water coming into the base?” Carlos’s face turned pale.

Seeing the fear in his eyes, I realized that something serious was happening.

“I don’t know! This is how I found it when I woke up. Open the doors from room 37 to 1 and wake everyone up!” I shouted as I opened the door to room 52 using my fingerprint, but there was no one inside.

Carlos fumbled with his phone and wrist pad. “Only the room owner, deputy team leader, or team leader can open the door. Or someone from a special department. I can’t open it.”

It was then that I remembered the bedroom door opening and emergency procedures listed in the guidebook. Maybe I can open the door because I’m a medical professional.

“Then at least knock on the doors!”

When I opened the door to room 54, there was someone sleeping with a blanket pulled up to their chin. I yanked the blanket away. The person was curled up like a fetus, and I recognized them immediately when I saw their face.

“Yoo Geum-yi, wake up!”

Geum-yi squinted and sat up, then screamed when she realized that two men had entered her room. I immediately lowered my head and spoke, “Water is leaking into the underwater base! Get dressed and come out right away!”

Why was she sleeping in this building when the research dormitory was on the other side?

I glanced at the name Martina written on the door and opened the one next to it. As I continued opening doors, Geum-yi came out of her room wearing her everyday clothes and glasses, her face pale with fear.

“Geum-yi, can you open the bedroom doors?”

“I’ll try.”

“My room is number 38, but I haven’t checked the rooms with lower numbers yet!”

As I opened room 60 with my fingerprint, Geum-yi fiddled with her wrist pad and phone, shaking her head.

“There’s no emergency message. I’ll activate the alarm.”

The ear-piercing alarm started ringing when I opened the 62nd door.

[Attention! Emergency situation! All personnel in the West District, evacuate to the escape pod immediately. Emergency situation! All personnel in the West District Building, evacuate to the escape pod immediately.]

It was only then that I realized Carlos was gone. When I asked Geum-yi about it, she said she hadn’t seen him since he had entered her room and left.

When I opened room 64, there was a cat inside. It seemed quite unhappy with me and Geum-yi for intruding.

Meow! —[Attention! Emergency situation!]

The cat’s low cry and the emergency alarm sounded together, making my ears feel like they were going to burst.

Geum-yi looked at the cat and said, “It’s a Russian Blue.”

That wasn’t the problem. Yoo Geum-yi was talking about the types of cats with a dumbfounded expression, and I too was at a loss for words upon seeing the cat. Animals were prohibited in the underwater base. A cat, of all things.

As I looked at Yoo Geum-yi with a “what do we do now” expression while the cat, the size of a forearm, puffed up its fur, Yoo Geum-yi nervously took off the cardigan she was wearing. “Let’s catch it.” She then held the cardigan in both hands like a net. Yoo Geum-yi gestured to me and went to the right.

“To the left.”

At that command, I picked up a blanket next to the bed with both hands, just like Yoo Geum-yi, and went to the left. I lunged at the cat, which was sitting on the desk, opening its mouth wide and meowing loudly. The cat slipped through a gap no bigger than a fist under the blanket as if mocking my actions, but Yoo Geum-yi, as if she knew I wouldn’t be able to catch it, covered the cat with the cardigan. Aaaaaaahhh! Although I had never raised a cat, its cry was as ferocious as a tiger’s.

While Yoo Geum-yi wrapped the cat in the cardigan, I emptied any random backpack I could find in the room. I then swept the cat, still wrapped in the cardigan, into the backpack and zipped it shut. After that, I slung the backpack over one shoulder.

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